 Welcome to ITU's Headquarters for WSIS Forum 2019. The big theme this year is how to use ICTs to help deliver the United Nations sustainable development goals. To discuss it, I am joined by Maria Manuela-Cotrina. She is State Secretary for the Ministry of Communication and Information Society of Romania. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much for having the opportunity to be here. You're very welcome. So, let's talk about how you use ICTs in Romania to help deliver the SDGs. And I believe you are going to tell us about this very interesting initiative in education. It's about using artificial intelligence. Tell us more about that. That was a secret that I told you before, but actually, I think besides offering infrastructure, laying broadband, offering access, affordable access and also high speed to the population, we need also to use this network that we already have. And one of the ways to use it besides doing e-government and doing e-government services, use it for e-commerce or using for various businesses that they are there, we think that we need to have built the skills for the people to use it in a more efficient way. So we tried to put, and I think I told you last year that we already have mandatory classes from the fifth degree for ITNC, for informatics, coding, computer science and so on, in each school. So each kid that is 10 years old has to learn it. But the problem that was generated by this decision is that we didn't have enough teachers that are able to transmit these new technologies, new competencies and so on and so forth, mainly in the remote areas of Romania, where we had the infrastructure, but we also had the computers, but we didn't have the teachers. And the kids there have the same right to access to the new technologies that the kids born in the capital. So what happened is a club, an EI club that was working in the University of Commerce, curiously, not in the University of White, would you expect at the Polytechnical School or so, worked on a program, it's an artificial intelligence agent. She got a name, she's called Juana, and every kid can get a personal assistant and teach him coding. The schools just have to register with the platform. So right now, in around six months, maybe 50% of the schools already registered and use this assistant, but also the parents can register their kids. And this assistant teaches the kids coding in their own pace, in their own rhythms. So it has the patience that is needed and sometimes energy. It's very successful and we're looking forward to have it in all the schools until the end of the year. And it doesn't only teach coding, it teaches, they learn also drones, trading, creating new technologies. People are, kids are very enthusiastic with this. So it's one way of using artificial intelligence for a different thing that we already expected to use it. So it's a fantastic example of how you can use ICT for inclusion. There's an issue in ICTs actually generally, and it's the lack of women in the sector. I believe that's a theme that's very dear to you personally and of course to the ministry as well. So what efforts are you conducting in Romania to improve the situation? Actually, we are in a favorable situation being on top of Europe in the number of women. We are around 30%, but still not enough. And we try to convince our European partners that we need more. And so, exotically as it may sound, one of the priorities of the Romanian Presidency of the Council, a lot of the Presidency, is beside innovation, cybersecurity skills, women in tech. Why? Because we think it's a purely business decision before being a gender equity decision. All of the industry has a lack of talents in every European country, but everywhere else we are on the globe. We have not enough people that come to the industry. So it will be totally stupid not to look at half of the population that are women in every country and bring them on board. Just because it's an industry that pays well, it's an industry that allows you to make a good mix between family life and professional lives, just because we can work remotely for example. And so we need more women. It's as simple as it is, and surprisingly women are very good at it. Or maybe not surprisingly. Yeah, maybe not surprisingly. Now, you've mentioned that you're here at Oasis Forum for the second year running. So why was it important for you to come back? I think Oasis Forum has a format that is quite exotic in the international relations. It's our place where we can meet a lot of people. Be connected to a lot of hot topics that are discussed in the, let's say, not very formal way. That's good because you change opinion, you learn what other countries do. Sometimes we are really secluded in Europe and in our European discussions, and we just forgot that there is a word out there that does amazing things. So this opportunity is here to learn what others do, maybe to share our experience and give it to the world. Maybe learn from others' mistakes and also learn from others' success. So I really like the atmosphere. This is why I decided to be here today and not to be impressed. But I think it's something that we see that's very good and it does it for ten years. So we're looking forward to new events in this format. Maya Manuela-Caterina, thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you.